Naim Analog Preamps - Control Volume using Roon?

Tinkering
1

Has anyone had success (or not) using Deep Harmony or something else to enable Roon to control volume on a Naim analog preamp?

I’m told that running Deep Harmony with a Harmony Hub may allow the hub to generate the required ir such that I can control my NAC 252 from within Roon.

The ONLY drawback so far to my use of Roon is that I can’t control volume on the NAC without picking up a second device (the Naim remote).

Alternatively, if Roon sent the right signal to my Naim ND streamer player (a Roon-ready ND555), I could use “system automation” to have the Naim player control volume on the NAC, which is how it works when I use the Naim App. But it does not appear that as of right now Roon and Naim Roon-ready players are compatible in that way.

2

Hi Bart, did you try to change the Volume setting on the ND555 to be device and not fixed? It might then control volume on the ND555. This is how it works for all in one Initial range of Atom, Star and Nova. If this does nothing or stops the audio completely then it likely that Roon can’t control it as Naim don’t expose it. Some DACs Roon can control the volume on some others it cant and it seems to be down to how it’s implemented.
Adding @support as they might be able to advise on this bit.

As I mentioned on Naim forum this should work with a harmony hub and the Deep harmony extension.

3

Also adding @Adam_Goodfellow the developer of the harmony plugin. Adam this should be able to work using the normal method of using Roon triggering the harmony to control the volume of the pre amp and not the streamer as it looks like you can’t control volume on the nd555 itself via Roon.

4

Thanks Simon – The ND players don’t work like the Uniti line (Atom, Star, Nova etc). I’d have to see if Deep Harmony can cause a Harmony Hub to send the right IR to my preamp when I use the Roon ui’s volume control.

5

I am about to setup my second system using a new hub today. This will be similar to yours as I will need to control the volume on my active speakers from the Roon volume control. Will let you know how it goes.

6

Deep Harmony can work in one of two modes for volume control:
1 - Using Harmony to control a device’s volume, for eg my Yamaha A-S2100 is controlled this way via IR codes from Harmony. This allow the volume popup in Roon (and CTRL+Up/Down/M) in the Roon UI to control the amp.
2 - Using Harmony remote to control Roon directly - this mode is used to control Roon Ready devices and DACs that support ‘device volume’ or even allow Harmony to control volume of a device via a different extension, for eg, the direct volume extensions for AVRs from Yamaha and Denon that control the device over the network.

As I understand it, the ND555 is a ‘Roon Ready’ device.

7

It is but has no device volume control as it’s a streamer so its fixed. It would work for Bart using method one.

8

Thanks both! As Simon states, the ND555, whilst Roon Ready, does not in and of itself have variable volume output to the preamp. Naim have implemented “System Automation” whereby the ND555 can pass a signal to the preamp (via a separate cable) to tell the preamp to change the volume via a micro-motor that physically turns the volume control knob on the preamp. Access to this path via Roon would be ideal, but I suspect that Naim have not enabled that within their implementation of Roon. So “Method 1” likely is my only option for now if I want to be able to control volume from the Roon app.

9

OK, then I think your are right - you need to add the ND555 as a device in Harmony (if Logitech have created a profile for it). If they have not, then it may be worth contacting them as sometimes they can tweak/re-tag an existing profile very quickly.

Failing that, you can always ‘learn’ the IR codes into another device profile.